Method for reinforcing a glass of touch panel and reinforcement structure thereof

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides a method for reinforcing a glass of a touch panel and a reinforcement structure thereof. The method provides at least one protective film and at least one glass substrate. One side of the glass substrate is adhered to one side of the protective film. The glass substrate adhered with the protective film is dipped in an adhesive reservoir. The glass substrate adhered with the protective film is taken out of the adhesive reservoir. After the adhesive is hardened, a reinforcement layer is formed on the other side and the periphery of the glass substrate. The present invention makes the surface of the glass to be more flat with an increased strength.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method for reinforcing a glass of atouch panel and a reinforcement structure thereof, in which one sidesurface and the periphery of a glass substrate are formed with areinforcement layer respectively to thereby reinforce the glass. In thisway, the surface of the glass substrate can be made shining, smooth andflat very well.

2. Description of Prior Art

Recent years, touch panels have become more and more popular. Indesigning the touch panel, a surface of the touch panel is provided witha transparent glass plate for acting as a protective glass. In this way,the touch panel can be protected from suffering damage when it istouched or pressed.

The touch panel further comprises another transparent glass plate with atouch sensor function. Thus, in order to protect the glass plate, manymanufacturers aim to develop different techniques for reinforcing thetransparent glass plate.

As for the manufacturing process of the transparent glass plate, alarge-sized transparent glass plate is cut into a plurality ofsmall-sized transparent glass plates whose dimensions correspond tothose of the final products of the touch panels. The existing techniquesfor cutting the transparent glass plate include a wheel scribing andbreaking process, a laser scribing and breaking process, an etching andbreaking process, a sand-blasting and breaking process, or the like.

However, the edges of the small-sized transparent glass plates afterbeing cut have micro-cracks or chippings, which deteriorate the strengthof the transparent glass plate. Therefore, when the transparent glassplate is mounted onto the touch panel, since the edges of thetransparent glass plate are not reinforced, the transparent glass platemay suffer damage (such as creaks) easily after being collided ordropping to the ground. Therefore, it is an important issue for themanufacturers in this art to solve this problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to solve the above problem, an objective of the presentinvention is to provide a method for reinforcing a glass of a touchpanel, whereby the strength of the glass can be increased greatly.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method forreinforcing a glass of a touch pane, whereby the reduced of the glasscan be reduced, and the surface of the glass can be made more flat,shining and smooth.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a reinforcementstructure for a glass of a touch panel, wherein the strength of theglass can be increased greatly.

A still object of the present invention is to provide a reinforcementstructure for a glass of a touch panel, wherein the glass can be mademore flat, shining and smooth.

In order to achieve the above objectives, the present invention providesa method for strengthening a glass of a touch panel, including steps of:providing at least one protective film and at least one glass substrate;adhering one side of the glass substrate on one side of the protectivefilm; dipping the glass substrate adhered with the protective film intoan adhesive reservoir; taking the glass substrate adhered with theprotective film out of the adhesive reservoir and waiting the adhesiveto harden to thereby form a reinforcement layer on the other side andthe periphery of the glass substrate. By this method, the micro-cracksor pores on the surface of the glass substrate can be filled to generatea more flat, shining and smooth surface. Further, the strength of theglass can be increased greatly.

The present invention further provides a reinforcement structure for aglass of a touch panel, including at least one glass substrate, at leastone protective film and a reinforcement layer. The glass substrate isprovided with a first side surface and a second side surface. The firstside surface is arranged opposite to the second side surface and adheredto an adhesion surface of the protective film, thereby forming thereinforcement layer on the second side surface and the periphery of theglass substrate. By forming the reinforcement layer onto the glasssubstrate, the strength of the glass can be increased. Further, thesecond side surface can be made more flat, shining and smooth.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an assembled perspective view showing a first embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the first embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the first embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a second embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 5A is a flow chart showing a third embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 5B is a schematic view showing the third embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The above objectives and structural and functional features of thepresent invention will be described in more detail with reference topreferred embodiments thereof shown in the accompanying drawings

The present invention provides a method for reinforcing a glass of atouch panel and a reinforcement structure thereof. Please refer to FIGS.1 and 2, which are an assembled perspective view and an explodedperspective view showing the first embodiment of the present inventionrespectively. The reinforcement structure of the present inventionincludes at least one glass substrate 10, at least one protective film12 and a reinforcement layer 13. The glass substrate 10 is a glasssubstrate which may be subjected to a machining process (such ascutting) or not. In the present embodiment, the glass substrate 10 issubjected to a machining process, but it is not limited thereto. Oneglass substrate 10 is used as an example, but the number of the glasssubstrates 10 is not limited thereto. In the present embodiment, theuser can change the number of the glass substrates 10 adhered with theprotective film 12 based on practical demands.

The glass 10 is provided with a first side surface 101 and a second sidesurface 102 opposite to the first side surface 101. The protective film12 is arranged opposite to the glass substrate 10 and has an adhesionsurface 121. The adhesion surface 121 is adhered to the first sidesurface 101 of the glass substrate 10, thereby binding the glasssubstrate 10 and the protective film 12 together. The adhesion surface121 has an adhesive layer 1211 which can be adhered repeatedly. Theadhesive layer 1211 can be adhered on the first side surface 101 of theglass substrate 10 repeatedly.

In the present embodiment, the surface area of the protective film 12 islarger than the area of a surface of the glass substrate 10 to beadhered to the protective film 12. As shown in FIG. 3, the surface areaof the protective film 12 is larger than the area of a surface of theglass substrate 10 to be adhered to the protective film 12. Further, thevolume of the protective film 12 is larger than the volume of the glasssubstrate 10, but it is not limited thereto. The surface area of theprotective film 12 may be equal to the area of a surface of the glasssubstrate 10 to be adhered to the protective film 12.

Please refer to FIGS. 2 and 3. The reinforcement layer 13 is made ofreinforced adhesive materials such as UV adhesive, polyurethane (PU)adhesive, rubber, silicon, acrylic adhesive, glass resin, epoxy resin orcomposite materials. The reinforcement layer 13 is formed on theperiphery and the second side surface 102 of the glass substrate 10 forfilling the micro-cracks or chippings formed on the periphery and thesecond side surface 102 of the glass substrate 10 to thereby increasethe strength of the glass substrate 10. In this way, the second sidesurface 102 can be made more flat, shining and smooth.

According to the present invention, the reinforcement layer 13 is formedon the second side surface 102 and the periphery of the glass substrate10. In this way, the strength of the glass can be increased greatly.Further, the surface of the glass can be made more flat, shining andsmooth.

The reinforcement structure of the present invention can be applied to adisplay device or touch panel of various electronic products such asmobile communication devices, portable multi-medium players, satellitenavigation devices, digital cameras, notebook computers, panel computersor the like.

Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a cross-sectional view showing thesecond embodiment of the present invention. The relationship andconnection between the structural components of the present embodimentare substantially the same as those of the first embodiment, so that theredundant description thereof is omitted for clarity. The differencebetween the second embodiment and the first embodiment lies in that: theglass substrate 10 is provided with an electrical conductive layer 15.In the present embodiment, the electrical conductive layer 15 is made ofIndium Tin Oxide (referred to as ITO hereinafter), but it is not limitedthereto. The electrical conductive layer 15 is formed on the first sidesurface 101 of the glass substrate 10 by a sputtering process. Theprotective film 12 is adhered to the first side surface 101 and theelectrical conductive layer 15 for protecting the electrical conductivelayer 15.

Please refer to FIGS. 5A and 5B showing the flow chart of the thirdembodiment of the present invention. Please also refer to FIGS. 1 to 3.The present embodiment provides a method for reinforcing a glass of atouch panel, which includes steps as follows:

(S1) providing at least one protective film and at least one glasssubstrate;

In the step S1, at least one protective film 12 and at least one glasssubstrate 10 are provided. In the present embodiment, the surface areaof the protective film 12 is larger than the area of a surface of theglass substrate 10 to be adhered to the protective film 12, but it isnot limited thereto. The surface area of the protective film 12 may beequal to the area of a surface of the glass substrate 10 to be adheredto the protective film 12.

(S2) adhering one side of the glass substrate on one side of theprotective film, and dipping the glass substrate adhered with theprotective film into an adhesive reservoir;

In the step S2, one side (i.e. the first side surface 101) of the glasssubstrate 10 is adhered to one side (i.e. the adhesion surface 121) ofthe protective film 12, so that the glass substrate 10 and theprotective film 12 can be adhered together. Then, the glass substrate 10adhered with the protective film 12 is dipped into an adhesive reservoir2.

(S3) taking the glass substrate adhered to the protective film out ofthe adhesive reservoir and waiting the adhesive to harden, therebyforming a reinforcement layer on the other side and the periphery of theglass substrate;

In the step S3, the glass substrate 10 adhered with the protective film12 is taken out of the adhesive reservoir 2. After the adhesive 21 onthe other side (i.e. the second side surface 102) and the periphery ofthe glass substrate 10 is hardened, a reinforcement layer 13 is formedon the second side surface 102 and the periphery of the glass substrate10. The reinforcement layer 13 is made of reinforced adhesive materialssuch as UV adhesive, polyurethane adhesive, rubber, silicon, acrylicadhesive, glass resin, epoxy resin, composite materials and the like.

(S4) removing the protective film from one side of the glass substrate;

In the step S4, the protective film 12 on one side (i.e. the first sidesurface 101) of the glass substrate 10 is removed from the glasssubstrate 10.

By the present method, the strength of the glass can be increased.Further, the surface of the glass can be made more flat, shining andsmooth with a reduced cost.

According to the above, the present invention has advantageous featuresin comparison with prior art:

(1) the present invention has an increased strength;

(2) the surface of the present invention is made more flat, shining andsmooth;

(3) the present invention has an reduced cost.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to theforegoing preferred embodiments, it will be understood that theinvention is not limited to the details thereof. Various equivalentvariations and modifications can still occur to those skilled in thisart in view of the teachings of the present invention. Thus, all suchvariations and equivalent modifications are also embraced within thescope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for reinforcing a glass of a touchpanel, including steps of: providing at least one protective film and atleast one glass substrate of said touch panel; wherein said glasssubstrate comprises a first and a second side and micro-cracks orchippings on a periphery of said glass substrate and whole surface ofsaid second side adhering said first side of the glass substrate on oneside of the protective film, dipping the glass substrate adhered withthe protective film into an adhesive reservoir containing a materialthat will provide a hard reinforcing layer and fill the micro-cracks orchippings formed in the periphery and the surfaces coated; and takingthe glass substrate adhered with the protective film out of the adhesivereservoir and waiting for the adhesive to harden and thereby fond areinforcement layer on said second side and the periphery of the glasssubstrate filling said micro-cracks or chippings on said periphery ofsaid glass substrate and whole surface of said second side of said glasssubstrate to increase the strength of the glass substrate.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, further including a step of removing theprotective film from one side of the glass substrate after forming thereinforcement layer on the other side and the periphery of the glasssubstrate.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reinforcementlayer is made of a reinforced adhesive material selected from any one ofUV adhesive, polyurethane adhesive, rubber, silicon, acrylic adhesive,glass resin, epoxy resin and composite materials.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the surface area of the protective film islarger than the area of a surface of the glass substrate to be adheredto the protective film.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein thesurface area of the protective film is equal to the area of a surface ofthe glass substrate to be adhered to the protective film.